Kaeryn
The wild, southern regions of Ceilar were long feared uninhabitable by the noble houses of Seawn. Time and again, explorers had been sent south to either disappear forever or return with stories of ogres, giants, and the dominion of orcs and hobgoblins. After two and a half centuries of failed attempts to tame the wilderness, a young paladin, Kronus of Arwin, had a vision that his goddess wished him to enter the Wilderlands and build a new abbey in her name. Gathering together a force of paladins, rangers, and other explorers and adventurers, Kronus did what was long thought impossible... the founding of a new human settlement south of the Searian border. Because the colony needed stronger fortifications than those to the north, and because of the young paladin's willingness to buy into his own legend, he named the settlement using the Old Searian word for fortress accompanied by his own name: Kærn Kronus. Using the location as a forward base, Kronus continued to lead his growing army deeper into the south, founding more kærns along the way, striking as far south as the modern location of the Great Wall of the Cabal. Separated from Searian rule, Kronus established a paladin-king for each of these new territories, with himself as the High King of Kærn Kronus. And within twenty years of the establishment of the first advanced base, the kingdom of Kæryn (KAYR een) was formed. However, that first kærn and the first High King would soon become one of the new nation's greatest mysteries. Twenty-five years to the day from its naming, Kærn Kronus, its High King, and all of its citizens disappeared without a trace. The first king named by Kronus, his chief lieutenant Kel, was named High King until such time as the first fortress could be reclaimed and its king reinstated. It was over five-hundred years, however, before Kronus would return. By that time, his legacy and his authority had faded into myth, and the homecoming of the High King was a violent one. The kingdom of Kæryn stretches from the eastern shores of the Inner Sea to the western banks of Lake Kharas. The river Gale and its Bridge Keep mark the kingdom's northernmost point, and the ruins of the Great Wall of the Cabal serve as its southern border. The nation's capital, Kærn Kel, overlooks the Inner Sea north of the Whitefang Mire. Once a land of brambles and thick forests, the claiming of Kæryn turned it into a region of tree-speckled plains and tall grasses. The orcs and giants were pushed into the mountains of the east and beyond, and the hobgoblins south into what remained of the Wilderlands, save for the Whitefang tribe that successfully held and continues to reside in the Whitefang Mire more or less peacefully. While occasionally, goblins from the north, orcs from the west, or hobgoblins from beyond the southern wall will find their way into its borders to cause havoc, the region is more or less kept free of humanoid threats. The biggest danger in Kæryn comes from its larger inhabitants. A realm of questing knights and adventuring paladins, the kingdom seems to be a magnet for monstrosities, from manticores and gorgon to bulettes and dragons. The mountains to the east are home to lingering populations of giants, including frost giants that hibernate beneath their surface during the warmer months. Kæryn is also pock-marked with holes and monoliths leading to underground ruins from a civilization that was long lost when the Sear was at the heights of its power. While the theocracy can be a little "just" and self-righteous at times, its willingness to put its armies at risk for others has garnered it quite a few allies. Since the Third Incursion of Kaos, however, many of those alliances have become tested. The Kæri kings, having seen their goddess survive a war through which many older gods died, became even more zealous in their belief that their theocracy is especially blessed. Since then, the armies of Kæryn have been more focused on their enemies to the east, Korvis and the Ancelyn elves, and less so on aiding their neighbors in times of crisis. This has caused a bit of a schism with the Searians of the north, who as the progenitors of the Kæri have long been their most staunch allies. That alliance has served the kingdom well, especially since the return of Kantrev nee-Kærn Kronus and the founding of the kingdom of Korvis to its northeast, but in recent years the focuses of the two nations have grown more inward even as their people have grown further apart. The long-standing alliance between the Kæri and Barak-Alorak has practically disappeared with the sealing of the Ædar cities after the Third Incursion of Kaos. The near disappearance of the Sidh races of the Faerie Isles has lost the Kæryn another of their most reliable allies, as has the devastation that tore through Wilder and left it known as the Troubled Lands. Finally, the reluctance of the kings to allow the Warriors of the Broken Tribes to relocate inside of their borders has weakened what was once a strong bond with their former enemies. So now, Kæryn stands more or less alone in its fight against Korvis, resulting in a stalemate that has lingered for centuries. The recent discovery that the High King of the kantrevs is actually a half-fiend, however, has only strengthened their determination to defeat their enemy and reunite the nation with its lost kærns. For Kæryn, it has truly become the holy crusade that they always claimed it to be, and the High King has sworn to see the "devil" deposed. That attitude does not sit well with all Kæri, however. The southern Kærns, always a bit more liberal than their northern brethren, have begun to question the wisdom of such zealotry. True, Arwin survived the Godfall, but she might have helped prevent terrible destruction and perhaps even the fall of some gods had she been able to ignore Caracdoc's challenge and focus her people's attention on the greater threat of Az. Kærn Karn, which has never had a paladin on its throne, and Kærn Korinna, with its Sidhborne rulers, both opened their gates to refugees of the free-thinking Wilder and their grasslands to their former enemies among the Broken Tribes after the fall of the Crimson Tower, and while they have not turned away from Arwin, they have begun to speak openly against the rigidity of the High King's theocratic views. Now, former allies and enemies alike, turn their eyes towards Kæryn to see just how far this division within the kingdoms will grow. There are even whispers of Korvin agitators secreting themselves within the kærns, manipulating the theocracy and its citizens closer to the precipice of civil war, hungering to take advantage of any weakness in the stability of the once great nation. Category:Locations Category:Gazeteer